Ok, well… that’s kind of a lie. I am writing this on Thursday, October 13th and will fill in details as they become available. As it truly stands (for me – in this moment), there are still some audio fixes in the beginning and the whole final scene to shoot with the First Doctor and Susan.

A couple of years ago now, my friend Bob Mitsch had made connections with the owner of the TARDIS console from the 1996 TV movie featuring the Seventh and Eighth Doctors. Paul Salamoff, the aforementioned owner, was kind enough to let us visit the console – this amazing piece of nerd history – and take some pictures with it. Bob Mitsch himself has put together a number of amazing costumes over time including Doctors, companions and monsters. Standing at the console and considering all of the resources available to us, I knew that we had to shoot something.

But what? Living in LA, I thought it might be neat to do something that embraced the scenery. I wanted to do something new and am pretty sure we haven’t really seen The Doctor in Hollywoodland before. I wrote a twenty-something page script. The idea was that a former companion of The Doctor’s had written down their adventures wtih him and sold them as Hollywood scripts, becoming a successful film executive. I liked it. I mean, I thought it was really cool, but it was a bit adventurous. It ended with a music video montage of Doctors Four and Eleven along with Amy Pond exploring the Los Angeles landmarks.

It was too long.

Also – Bob and others have put serious effort into some pretty amazing costumes. If we have costumes for each of the eleven Doctors, I didn’t want to limit it to just two or three of them. Bob ALSO has an amazing Cyberman costume that I’ve wanted to put in some sort of project.

I also had access to a Dalek. I really have no idea why we didn’t use it.

Paul Salamoff, Bob Mitsch, Athena Stamos, CJ DeAngelus, Dalek Pete, Kevin Kittridge. Funnily enough, Mitsch doesn't actually play the 7th Doctor in the short, but brought his costume to get some shots of 7 and 8 at the Console.

AND NOW it is DECEMBER 12th… I had to rewrite the last scene because I couldn’t score an edit bay (as a location). I’m pretty happy with it.

So here are the preemptive notes:

* The majority of people in this video are not actors; merely passionate fans doing me a favor.

* “Your wig for Eleven is terrible!” – – I know. It’s what we were stuck with.

* “Your accent is terrible!” – – I know. Perhaps the First Doctor was right: maybe I shouldn’t try the accent if I can’t do it convincingly.

* “The 5th Doctor’s hair is supposed to be blonde!” – – I know. I wasn’t going to ask Brad to dye his hair.

Not only does Paul own the 8th Doctor’s TARDIS console [and that Dalek], but he’s a very accomplished writer and producer of science fiction.

And also the great Bob Mitsch. Not only did he supply the majority of the costumes, but he helped wrangle fans from his nerd army to help play characters in this. He’s also a great friend.

And another great friend, the incomparable Rick Schultz. Rick shot this, edited it, did all the special effects and also co-directed. Furthermore, he’s more creative than I am. When I first had the idea for this, the band was going to be playing in an all-white environment (all E-Space like), and the TARDIS was just going to have a black background. Rick convinced me that he could make them cool. To be honest, I think a big part of the reason he took this on was to see what he was capable of doing with the effects (but mostly he did it simply to help me out).

And here’s the official cast list:

First Doctor: Scott Sebring

Second Doctor: Bob Mitsch

Third Doctor: Ewan Anderson

Fourth Doctor: Bob Mitsch

Fifth Doctor: Brad Hansen

Sixth Doctor: Aubrey West

Seventh Doctor: Chad Knueppe

Eighth Doctor: CJ DeAngelus

Ninth Doctor: Kevin Kittridge

Tenth Doctor: Blevin Blittridge

Eleventh Doctor: Shmevin Shmittridge

The Master: Michael Weinstein

The Cyberman: Bob Mitsch

Kevin Kittridge: Herman Vreshi Von Drake

Susan Foreman: Jody Houser

Zoe Harriot: Teri Samuels

Jamie McCrimmon: Van Donovan

Nyssa of Traken: Katharine Forman

Ace: Erin Logan

Amy Pond: Athena Stamos

So I hope you like it. If you find yourself in the Los Angeles area, you should check out my improv group.

I hold on to the fun stuff. There are parts of my childhood that I refuse to let go of. There’s The Greatest American Hero. There’s Star Trek. There’s the wonderful world of professional wrestling.

And there’s sure as shit Doctor Who.

I started watching the show when I was about 13, maybe even younger. I’ve looked back and tried to see exactly what it was that drew my in. A big part of it is The Doctor himself: an action hero with great humor who – even with the odds against him – was able to save the Universe time and time again. But one “character” that I was even more fascinated with than The Doctor was the TARDIS. This is the ship that transported The Doctor through time and space. As mentioned in a previous post, the outside is “disguised” as an ordinary 1960’s police box, but the inside is huge – some say infinite. And the most important part of the TARDIS for me was the console. This is where The Doctor piloted his craft. The TARDIS console makes everything happen.

I’ve always wanted a TARDIS. When I was a kid I tried making my own consoles. They were very poorly and crudely done. I would take apart telephones and various electronic gadgets found in the garage to get the buttons needed to make my time and space machine … on a card table. In fact the very first time I met one of my lifelong friends Jake, another friend had led him into my bedroom where I was alone dressed in my overcoat and 16 foot Doctor Who scarf and I was TRAVELING THROUGH TIME AND SPACE at my TARDIS console. That was the first image he had of me. I’m still surprised he decided to hang out with me.

Even as recently as about four years ago, Rick helped me out with my passion and photoshopped me very well as the Ninth Doctor at the TARDIS console from 2005:

That's me as the Ninth Doctor - brilliantly photoshopped by Rick

In 1996, FOX put out a TV movie that was meant to reboot the series in America (shot in Vancouver). Part of this reboot was making a new TARDIS console and interior (they kept the Police Box, it’s pretty iconic and us nerds would have rioted if they changed it). It also had the 7th Doctor regenerate into the 8th Doctor. Sadly the movie didn’t do so well ratings-wise and a new show never materialized. Through a ridiculous set of circumstances that I don’t completely comprehend, a SAINT of a man named Paul was able to get a hold of the TARDIS console from the movie. He got it shipped from Vancouver to where he lives in Burbank.

A publicity shot for the TV movie. The Eighth Doctor (Paul McGann) at the TARDIS console.

Burbank is just down the road from me.

Good ole Bob Mitsch made connections and arranged to have us visit this piece of history. Along with Bob and I came Justin (who makes a pretty darned great 8th Doctor) and Scott, who is a friend and photographer. Scott took a lot of great shots of Justin recreating shots of the movie with the console, and I was able to get several done as well. It was a pretty sweet frickin’ day. It was just thrilling to be at the ACTUAL console, flipping through controls on the same device that the 7th and 8th Doctors did on camera.

All photos are courtesy of Scott Sebring. Most of them can also be viewed in their original size (they are so tiny here!) at my Flickr page:

I was able to take a small amount of video as well. Short and corny, but fun. Hopefully you can feel the very real joy that I was experiencing at this time. Frustratingly, the video is rather washed out on my face but the idea is there.

Oh, and because fandom demanded it, here’s a clip of the Tenth Doctor (me) playing the guitar solo to Bon Jovi’s “Wanted Dead or Alive” while the Eighth Doctor (Justin) calmly pilots the TARDIS. You are welcome, world. However, I’m not really a guitar player and it shows. Sorry.

Many, MANY thanks to Paul, Bob and Justin for making this day a seriously memorable one.

Sooooo… we have access to a Police Box, a TARDIS console, and a couple of guys who could play a couple of Doctors. We may have to write and shoot something. It’s just a waste to have a REAL TARDIS console hanging out in a garage. That’s gotta’ be SHOWCASED!

In the last month I’ve performed at the Comedy Store in Hollywood and operated a real TARDIS console. I’m just going to put it out to the Universe that I would like to meet Bill Murray.